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Saturday, November 19, 2016

Perhaps this was a reaction to a frustrating morning spent trying to get a 20x4 digital display to work with an Si5351 and an Arduino Uno via an I2C bus (I feel my blood pressure rising just due to the typing of those words). After much digital fiddling, I declared a "BASTA!" and looked around the shack for an antidote for the digital frustration. There on the bench was my fully analog BITX40Module rig, with its homebrew L-C analog VFO. It needed a better frequency readout. And this morning, it got one. The pointer is Sharpie ink on a bit of PC board. It is held in place by superglue, suspended by a piece of wood about 1/4 inch off the chassis (to reduce dial parallax). The numerals are in Dymo tape -- there was not enough room for the "7" but I think I will be able to remember this.

That is an absolutely simple and very practical solution. I would even go so far as to say an elegant solution. In the true spirit of what Frahan intended. Let us not forget --this is how it was first done. Cheers and Bravo. de N6QW

I used a 10 turn pot and just left the LO to drift like crazy and for how I use the Bitx 40 its perfect, but being able to know what frequency I am calling on helps and as I also take a CW transceiver out portable with me, I have another receiver to use to find my frequency, not the most eloquent solution but it works.

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In response to popular demand, "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" is now available as an e-book for Amazon's Kindle.
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